daily life of a japanese mom

鉄 Tetsu/iron

Tetsu/鉄 means iron in Japanese and it has another meaning that is used for describing the kind of people.
Do you know who they are?
It’s the railroad freaks! Tetsu-do/鉄道 means railroad. People who love railroad like trains,stations,route maps,and whatever related to railroad are called the Tetsu. You can see these people waiting for a train with the cameras on their hands at the edge of the platform to take the best shots of trains.

Anyway, Tatsu, my son, wants to change his name to Tetsu, because he is an inherent railroad freak!!

The other day, he asked me to take his this shot.

I couldn’t understand why he was wearing the toy cap of a station attendant and crossing his arms with the miniature trains in each hands.
He was mimicking this boy!!

The title of this manga is 鉄道少年キヲスク The railroad boy Kiosk.
He asked me to take this pic and post on my blog!! He is a real freak, I think.
He does love himself looking as a Tetsu. He has the ticket of the railroad museum in Osaka that is valid for one year. Actually, that museum is very near his grand parent’s home, and he goes there at least once a month. I believe he should have that ticket!

>I never have in the US!
Really!? Maybe, you don’t need to have it.
Amtrak is known in Japan. It’s for long-distance, isn’t it?
I have been to Los Angels, and I saw a huge Amtrak station there. It was a beautiful sight.
Oh, I took a train in San Diego! It was a red train that brought me to down town from suburb.
I also took a Greyhound bus. It’s more popular in your country to move long-distance than trains, right?
It’s fun to ride on some vehicles in abroad! So, why don’t you take the Osaka subway when you come here! It’s hard for me. (>_<)

Your train depot will be nice for Tatsu. He doesn’t care whether a train is running or not!

tokyo5,
Yes! There’s 交通科学博物館 in Osaka. It is run by JR west. http://www.mtm.or.jp/
In Kyoto, there’s a famous museum for the steam locomotives. http://www.mtm.or.jp/uslm/
I watched on TV about the Train Museun in Saitama. It looked so crowded!
But some day,I would like to take him there!

He and my husband had the stamp rally of Osaka subway, and he got stickers or something.

The reason america has so few trains is because we are a culture of instant gratification. We hate trains, they take forever and stop every few minutes. (There are very few express trains here.) Really, only trains in large cities with other large cities close by are used alot by people. We drive and fly. It is more effective for us. Just think of the fact that the state of Montana has a population density of something like one person every four square miles! But, Germany has some trains that cross it and the views are ‘sagoi’ and the mountains go on ‘eien’. I lived there when I was a kid. Sorry if I killed your dreams of america. Check out Europe if you want to find some nice trains. They have the people for it. We tear down train tracks in the US to pave them and drive on them.